Joseph H. Tucker (c. 1819 – October 22, 1894) was a banker, businessman and Illinois militia colonel during the first two years of the American Civil War (Civil War). He was given initial responsibility for building Camp Douglas at Chicago, Illinois, and was the first commander of the camp. Originally a training camp for Union Army recruits, in 1862 and 1863 Camp Douglas was converted into a prison camp for Confederate States Army prisoners captured by the Union Army. Tucker was commander of the camp from the start of its construction in October 1861 until September 28, 1862, except between February 26, 1862, and June 19, 1862. During this time, the camp was used as a training facility and had its initial use as a prisoner of war camp. Tucker was never mustered into the Union Army, remaining a colonel in the Illinois militia during the term of his service in the Civil War.Levy, George, To Die in Chicago: Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862–1865. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, revised edition 1999, original edition 1994. . p. 119.
Early life Joseph H. Tucker was born in New York in about 1819, the son of a Baptist minister. Tucker had been a banker and businessman in Cumberland, Maryland, before he moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1858.Levy, 1999, p. 29. He was a successful businessman, banker and stock trader.
American Civil War service
Background On April 15, 1861, the day after the U.S. Army garrison surrendered Fort Sumter to Confederate forces, President Abraham Lincoln called 75,000 state militiamen into federal service for ninety days to put down the insurrection.McPherson, James M., Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 187. Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 1988. Lincoln made further calls for volunteers on May 3, 1861, and the U.S. Congress retroactively approved Lincoln's actions and authorized another one million three–year volunteers in July 1861.McPherson, 1988, p. 322 The states and localities had to organize and equip the volunteer regiments until late in 1861 when the federal government became sufficiently organized to take over the project.McPherson, 1988, p. 323; In February 1862, Captain John Christopher, U.S. Army recruiting officer, assumed most of the construction costs of Camp Douglas for the federal government. Eisendrath Jr., Joseph L. Chicago's Camp Douglas, 1861–1865, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, (Springfield, IL), LIII:1 (Spring 1960), p. 38.
Soon after President Lincoln's calls for volunteers, many volunteers from Illinois gathered in various large public and private buildings in Chicago and then overflowed into camps on the prairie on the southeast edge of the city.Speer, Lonnie, R., Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War, p. 71. Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 1997. Senator Stephen A. DouglasSenator Douglas died June 3, 1861. owned land next to this location and had donated land just south of the camps to the original University of Chicago.Levy, 1999, pp. 29–30.
Building Camp Douglas, First Tucker command Illinois Governor Richard Yates assigned Judge Allen C. Fuller, soon to be adjutant general for the State of Illinois, to select the site for a permanent army camp at Chicago.Levy, 1999, p. 29, 40.Kelly, Dennis. 'A History of Camp Douglas, Illinois, Union Prison, 1861–1865'. National Park Service, Southeast Region, 1989. Retrieved September 17, 2010. p. 3. Judge Fuller selected the site that was already in use for the makeshift camps because it was only four miles from downtown Chicago, prairie surrounded the site, nearby Lake Michigan could provide water and the Illinois Central Railroad ran within a few hundred yards of the site. Fuller was not an engineer and did not realize that the site was a poor choice for a large camp because of its wet, low–lying location.Heidler, David S. and Jeanne T. Heidler, Camp Douglas, Illinois Union Prison In Heidler, David S. and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social and Military History, p. 344. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10110, 2000. . Combines into one volume the original 5 volume work published by ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California in 2000. pp. 344–346. The camp initially lacked adequate medical facilities, sewers, latrines and drainage and when the camp opened, it had only one water hydrant.Levy, 1999, p. 33.Speer, 1997, p. 72.Levy, 1999, p. 43.
Governor Yates put Colonel Joseph H. Tucker, commanding the 60th Regiment, Illinois State Militia, in charge of building the camp and appointed Tucker as the camp's first commander.Levy, 1999, pp. 29, 33. State militia troops called the Mechanics Fusileers, who were apprentice and journeyman carpenters, built the barracks in October and November 1861.Levy, 1999, p. 31. Regular troops had to suppress rioting construction troops and restore order to the camp when the State tried to convert them to infantry and reneged on a promise of extra pay.Levy, 1999, p. 34. This was only the beginning of Tucker's problems.
By November 15, 1861, Camp Douglas housed about 4,222 volunteer soldiers from 11 regiments. In an ominous preview of the effects of living at the camp on the future prisoners, the recruits, who were in better physical condition than the later prisoners, suffered forty-two deaths from disease by February 1862. Colonel Tucker's job as camp commander was not easy even before the camp was converted to a prison camp. He had to use increasingly hard measures to curb considerable drunk and disorderly conduct by recruits in camp and in the city of Chicago, where the soldiers abused pass privileges.Kelly, 1989, pp. 9–11.
On February 16, 1862, the Union Army under then Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River near Dover, TennesseeLevy, 1999, pp. 21, 36. and with it about 12,000 to 15,000 Confederate prisoners.Levy, 1999, p. 37. The army was unprepared to handle this large group of prisoners and scrambled to find places to house them. Colonel Tucker told General Grant's superior, Major General Henry W. Halleck, that Camp Douglas could accommodate 8,000 or 9,000 prisoners, which was about the same number of recruits that the camp was supposed to be able to accommodate. As it turned out, the camp and its staff could not even easily handle the 4,459 prisoners who were sent to it.Levy, 1999, pp. 39, 47.
The first Confederate prisoners of war arrived at Camp Douglas on February 20, 1862, to find a camp but no real prison.Levy, 1999, p. 41. They were housed for their first few days at the camp in the White Oak Square section along with newly–trained Union soldiers about to depart for service at the front.Levy, 1999, p. 39. The army sent sick prisoners to the camp, where there were no medical facilities at the time, even though army staff were specifically warned not to do so.Levy, 1999, p. 45. On February 23, 1862, the Union troops vacated the camp except for an inadequate force of about 40 officers and 469 enlisted men left to guard the prisoners.Levy, 1999, pp. 41, 43, 50.Sanders, Charles W. 'While In The Hands Of The Enemy: Military Prisons Of The Civil War'. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. . p. 93. About 77 escapes were recorded at Camp Douglas by June 1862.Levy, 1999, p. 47.
On February 26, 1862, General Halleck ordered Colonel Tucker to report to Springfield, IllinoisLevy, 1999, p. 50Kelly, 1989, p. 20 says that Tucker was ordered to Springfield on January 28, 1862 and that Colonel Walter G. Brackett, 9th Illinois Cavalry, was camp commander between January 28, 1862 and February 14, 1862 when Colonel Mulligan took command. Kelly says that Tucker took command for several days starting February 21 when Mulligan was unavailable. and a Union Army officer from Illinois, Colonel James A. Mulligan, took command of the camp until June 14, 1862.Levy, 1999, pp. 50–51, 76 Between June 14 and June 19, 1862 Colonel Daniel Cameron, Jr. was in charge.
Colonel Mulligan's command The first group of prisoners was treated reasonably well under the circumstances and despite the inadequacy of the grounds, barracks and sewer and water systems, they were given clothing and enough to eat, although not a balanced diet.Sanders, 2005, p. 94. They received enough to eat, cooking stoves and utensils and clothing. Nonetheless, sickness and death among the prisoners, and even among some guards, reached epidemic levels.Levy, 1999, pp. 51, 55. Frozen hydrants led to a water shortage.Levy, 1999, p. 58. One in eight of the prisoners from Fort Donelson died of pneumonia or various diseases.
After the Union Army victory at the battle of Shiloh and capture of Island No. 10 in the spring of 1862, Camp Douglas housed 8,962 Confederate prisoners.Heidler, 2000, p. 345Sanders, 2005, p. 95. Conditions at the camp further deteriorated with the overcrowding. Escapes increased.Heidler, 2000, p. 345; Levy, 1999, p. 63 Some escapes were aided by Southern sympathizers in Chicago and others were facilitated by lax administration by Colonel Mulligan and the guards.
Second Tucker command Even though he remained in the Illinois militia and was not taken into federal service, Colonel Tucker returned to command the camp on June 19, 1862.Levy, 1999, p. 76. To deal with local civilian sympathizers who might be aiding escapes, Colonel Tucker declared martial law on July 12, 1862. When twenty–five prisoners escaped on July 23, 1862, Tucker arrested several citizens who he believed aided the escapees.Heidler, 2000, p. 345; Levy, 1999, p. 87. In addition, he brought in Chicago police to search the camp. This action caused much lasting animosity from the prisoners because the police confiscated many of the prisoners' valuables. The police also confiscated five pistols and many bullets.Levy, 1999, p. 77. Twenty of the escapees were recaptured within two weeks.Levy, 1999, p. 92.